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It can be traced back to Lancelot Andrewes. As an Easterner, I thought that you might find this source of particular interest:

http://fullhomelydivinity.org/iconsfullpage.htm

In the seventeenth century, Bishop Lancelot Andrewes asserted that the basis for authority in Anglicanism is to be found in one canon of Scripture, two testaments, three creeds, four councils, and five centuries of patristic teaching. In limiting the authority of the ecumenical councils to the first four, Andrewes, and those who follow him in this, would appear to deny the significance and authority of three of the seven generally recognized ecumenical councils of the early church. These three councils fall outside of Andrewes’ “five centuries”. Also, Andrewes was writing at the time of the Reformation when images, the particular issue addressed by the seventh council (Nicaea II in 787), were a particular sticking point for protestants. However, it would be a mistake to say that the Second Council of Nicaea, which brought an end to the iconoclastic controversy and established the legitimacy of icons in the architecture and worship of the Church, was concerned only with images. For the fathers of the council, the issue of images, or icons, was a Christological issue: the material depiction Christ and the saints in icons is an affirmation of the reality of his Incarnation and bodily Resurrection and of the restoration of the image of God in all who are sanctified in him.

Before the Reformation, images abounded in English churches. Wood and stone carving, stained glass, painted and woven work depicted God and his saints, biblical stories, and the lives of the saints. Much of this work was essentially decorative and educational, but a lot of it was also devotional: for example, statues of Christ and the saints were often the centerpieces of elaborate shrines to which the faithful would often resort for prayer. In fact, authority for the use of images—even icons—in English Christianity may be found nearly two centuries before the Second Council of Nicaea: when St. Augustine arrived in 597 to begin his mission to the English, a picture of Jesus Christ painted on a board was carried before him.

Many images were destroyed at the Reformation, but some survived and in time new ones were created. It is said that a group of Orthodox clergy who were being shown around an English church in the 20th century were told that the stained glass windows were “Anglican icons”. The comparison is not entirely accurate, as windows are not generally venerated as icons are. The function of stained glass both before and after the Reformation was educational and decorative, not devotional. Nevertheless, the point was made that images were never completely eliminated from Anglican church architecture. And later in the 20th century, actual icons, painted on prepared boards, began to appear with great frequency in Anglican churches, and also in the homes of Anglican Christians, just as crucifixes and other devotional objects were introduced in response to the catholic revival of the 19th century. It would be fair to say that for many Anglicans icons are a variation on stained glass—decorative and educational, an attractive addition to the fabric of our churches, bringing an ecumenical flavor to them. However, others are finding meaning in the theology of the icon and its use in prayer...